Thirteen
by Damien
Summary: And when this new flawed world rises from the ashes of the old, once again he will be born, and once again he will destroy…


Thirteen… By 

Damien

The Sorcerer Hunter characters are the creation and property of Satoru Akahori and Ray Omishi. They are used without permission. 

Prologue:

The Stuff of Nightmares

She had thought that with his death, the images and nightmares would stop. 

She had thought that with the stillness of his heart, the threat to her world would become still as well.

She had thought so many things would be possible… if only he would die.

Well, Zaha Torte _was_ dead, but the prophetic images of apocalypse and death still came to Big Momma. The God of Destruction still haunted her dreams…

"Now do you see?" Zaha asked, stepping up to stand beside the grief stricken Big Momma. The two of them stood atop a mountain and looked down upon the final desperate struggle between what remained of her Haz Knights, the Four Peer Gods and the harbinger of ruin. "You've changed nothing. The boy will realize his fate, no matter what you do. Only now, the flow of death and chaos will not have my hand to guide it. The same mistakes will be made as they have been made a thousand times in the past. And when this new flawed world rises from the ashes of the old, once again he will be born, and once again he will destroy…"

The image of Zaha faded. Only his voice still echoed in the wind. "…As is his destiny." 

The grief stricken woman merely shook her head, her tears clouding her vision of the beast, which had once been a member of her sorcerer hunters, turn its attention in her direction.

"I just… I just wanted peace. I just wanted everyone to be happy. But most of all…" she began, finally noticing the large amalgamation of horrors bearing down on her. She readied a spell, which she hoped would end this nightmare. "…Most of all, I just wanted everyone to live."  The spell spun to life in her hands, a melding of bright colors and massive chaos. "Was that wrong of me, Carrot?" She asked the multitude of eyes that wished only to see her flesh rend from her bones. The sole defender did not falter when the large shadow of the beast casted her into darkness. Nor did she feel fear when its claws gripped her body and lifted her into the air, about to squeeze the very life from her. 

Regret… there was only regret. 

The spell in her hands grew to the brightness of the stars. When she felt the first crack of her ribs and her vision beginning to cloud, she let loose the spell. "I'm sorry."

…So sorry…

Big Momma rolled over on her side letting the tears that had pooled in the wells of her eyes the freedom to roll down her cheek. Why? Why was she still having these visions of death? A sigh escaped her lips. Perhaps it was merely stress from the long battle with Zaha that had just ended with his death. She sat up in her bed and placing her hands before her, a vision of a dark forest formed between them. 

On a high tree limb of one of the hundreds of trees in the forest, sat a solitary figure. 

"Come on, Jerk. Everyone is waiting on you, Carrot!" A beautiful and muscular blond bellowed at the base of the tree. "Personally, I think we should leave such an ugly creature like you up there, but everyone else seems to believe…" He struck the tree with a crushing fist. "…_Otherwise_."

The tree shook violently and the young man fell from its heights, painfully striking branch after branch until he impacted harshly with the ground.

"AAAHHH!" A young woman around eighteen years of age shouted, bolting to a sitting position and throwing the thin sheet that had been covering her to the floor. Her eyes were wide with terror as they tried to recognize their surroundings. Slowly, her heaving chest began to calm and her breath began to slow. She raised a tired hand to her brow and wiped away the sweat that was clumping together the bangs of her hair. 

"Another nightmare, Sister?"

She turned, her eyes vacant and hollow, to look at a young woman with long jet-black hair, but those eyes of hers did not remain that way. Quickly, they became the mirthful and sly eyes that usually shown on the cheerful teen. "Nope, wet dream."

"What?" Her sister exclaimed with a blush.

Calypso Dance watched the reddening cheeks of her sister. Meringue was so easy to tease. It was almost embarrassing. "Yeah, it was me and these three guys, right…"

"Three??" Meringue began incredulously before calming herself. "Sister, you can't fool me." Meringue sat down on the bed next to her older sister. "You _did_ have another nightmare." 

Calypso ran her hand through the huge clump of black hair that covered the entire right side of her face down past her cheeks. Lifting the hair above her forehead, she cocked her head to one side and stared at her sister with both eyes. Meringue was the only person Calypso ever allowed to see her full face. "Oh c'mon, Merin, wouldn't you rather hear about a hot night with three guys than some dreary dream about me falling out of a tree?"

Meringue clutched her right hand into a fist to prevent it from reaching out to touch the side of her sister's face that she kept hidden to all others. It was one of Merin's great sources of pleasure… looking at her sister's face. It was also, by far, her greatest source of torment. No longer able to resist the temptation, Merin's hand reached out to touch her sister's cheek… to feel first hand her sister's love.

Noticing her little sister's hand reaching towards her, Calypso released her hair, allowing it to fall back in place and shield her from Merin's touch. Merin regretfully withdrew her hand. "What I want… is to know my older sister is okay," Merin replied not letting her sister's rebuff unsettle her. "This is the fourth time this week alone that you've passed out. It isn't normal, you…"

Calypso jumped out of the bed, cutting off her little sister. "No, what isn't normal is my sixteen year old little sister not ever having a boyfriend." She grabbed Merin by the hand and began to drag her out of the nurse's office. "Let's see what we can do about that, shall we?"

"Sister, your clothes!" After her sister was taken to the nurse's office, Meringue had removed her school uniform and placed in the bed.

Calypso ignored her.

Just when they reached the door, Merin yanked her hand back. "Stop trying to change the subject, Sister!" Meringue admonished. "When will you realize that everyone is worried about you?"

"Merin, Merin, Merin… It's **YOU**, I'm worried about," she called back into the room as she stepped out into the school's hallway. "Here you are, Meringue Dance, the lucky sister of the beautiful Calypso Dance and you ignore men as if they carried the plague. People are going to talk," Calypso continued to lecture. "You should follow my example and…"

"DARLING!"

"Ah! FOX!" Calypso screamed in fright as a handsome well-toned young man with fiery red hair barreled down on her from the end of the hallway. Calypso immediately took off in the opposite direction, despite the fact that she was wearing only bra and panties. 

"Looks like she's feeling better…" 

Merin turned around to see a young teenage man with short light auburn hair follow in the wake. Equally as handsome as his slightly older brother, Tango, Waltz was a bit more reserved in his emotions… at least in comparison to his brother. Sighing, Merin shook her head in response. "No matter what she says, something is wrong with my sister." Merin folded her arms across her chest and followed after Calypso.


End file.
